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Thursday, January 02, 2014

Random Musings

I had Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off — you gotta love holidays — and had several things planned, but as happens, life happens and then …

Without warning on Monday morning we lost our AT&T U-verse; no TV, no landlines, no internet. What was I to do? Was I suddenly a Pilgrim? Abe Lincoln reading by candlelight?

Okay, I overdramatize, but it was a pain. Couldn’t blog, email, Facebook, watch my stories, catch up on my Housewives, talk to anyone — until I got my much underused cell-phone from the car. Seriously, it felt like I was living in the 1800s. But at least we had electricity ….

Until Tuesday morning when the power went out for a couple of hours. I called Carlos — on the cellphone because AT&T wasn’t fixing my U-verse — to demand to know whether he’d paid the bills; I was only joking, somewhat.

Luckily the power came back on, and about 4PM the U-verse righted itself so I could watch Kathy Griffin and Husband-In-My-Head Randy Andy Cooper ring in the New Year.

Oh, and with Carlos, too, and a lovely bottle of Proseco.

Last Sunday we went out to seeAmericanHustle. Great movie. Christian Bale — my gorgeous Christian Bale — totally lost in prosthetics and bad comb-over, was hilarious; as was a ditzy Jennifer Lawrence. But I ain’t Rex Reed so that’s all the review you get; I’m here to talk movie etiquette.

It was still part of the Christmas holiday, so it was crowded even though we arrived kinda early. We found our seats, back row, at the top and sat down and watched as the room started to fill up. In front of me was an empty seat, a guy, his girlfriend, whom I will forever call Skinny Bitch, and two more empty seats. Up the aisles walk two women, one I would call average size and one I would call very plus-sized. They took the two empties next to Skinny Bitch, who then elbowed her boyfriend, or whatever, and said very loudly, ‘Move down one I don’t wanna sit by that.’

I was too stunned to even respond; I’d never ….

Then, we had two folks, a guy and a girl, come squeeze in next to Carlos right before the show started. One of the first scenes is of Christian Bale working that comb-over. It was really funny, but the guy next to Carlos could.not.stop.laughing as if it was the funniest thing he’d ever seen.in.his.whole.life. Then, to make matters worse, between the two of them, they got up and down about four times during the movie and, when seated, loved to comment on what was happening onscreen.

Lastly, there was an empty seat next to me, then a single guy, and then an empty seat. About two minutes in to the movie, a guy comes up the stairs and says to Single Guy, ‘I have three to see the movie. We’ll take the seat [next to Skinny Bitch] but can I ask you to move over one so the other two can sit together?’

Single Guy: ‘I’m kinda watching the movie.’

I was waiting for guns to be pulled and was thinking how to use Skinny Bitch or Obnoxious Couple as a human shield.

So, everybody fromThe AdvocatetoTimemagazine dubbed Pope Frankie as person of the year as part of the Cat5holic Church’s new ‘movement’ to be more progressive toward The Gays, right?

Yeah, not so much. Turns out Pope Frankie openly encouraged Bishop Charles Scicluna of Malta to condemn …condemn… adoption of children by same-sex couples in his Christmas sermon. Scicluna met Frankie on December 12: “We discussed many aspects… and when I raised the issue that’s worrying me as a bishop [the right for gay couples to adopt] he encouraged me to speak out."

And Pope Frankie was said to be "shocked" to learn that Malta's proposed Civil Union bill allows gay couples the right to adopt children.

The Boy Scouts of America began admitting openly gay scouts as of yesterday, January 1st.

Under the new membership policy, young gay bots can no longer be barred from the Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts or coed Venturers program, though they still face some limitations:

There will be no Cub Scout sex, of the gay or straight variety, and no scout may use scouting to “promote or advance any social or political position or agenda, including on the matter of sexual orientation" such as, scouts cannot wear their uniforms and march in Pride Parades.

Still, it’s a step ….

And of course, the BSA still does not allow openly gay Scout Leaders.

Apparently, back in the day, 1993 to be exact, the Houston Oilers, now known as the Tennessee Titans, had a tumultuous year but a new documentary says that one thing that caused no problems for the team was the presence of two gay players in the locker-room whom most, if not all, of the team knew to be gay.

“Listen, those guys that we’re talking about were unbelievable teammates. And if you wanted to go to war with someone, you would get those guys first. Because I have never seen tougher guys than those guys,” said Pro Bowl linebacker Lamar Lathon, who starred at the University of Houston. “And everybody in the locker room, the consensus knew or had an idea that things were not exactly right. But guess what? When they strapped the pads on and got on the field, man, we were going to war with these guys because they were unbelievable.”

[...]

“Everybody knew certain guys (were gay). Everybody speculated and people used to see these two guys come in by themselves. They’d leave at lunchtime and then come back,” Bubba McDowell said.

McDowell echoed Lathon’s thoughts, saying the gay players were highly valued on the field and showering with them in the locker room was “no big deal.”

Too bad no big deal in the showers didn’t transcend to no big deal off the field.

So, the Rose Parade, and the Big Gay Float where an actual :::gasp:::: same-sex marriage was to be performed during the parade.

Lotsa wingnuts were up in arms, demanding that the show not be aired, demanding that no footage of The Gay Float — like there’s one gay float in a parade — not be shown, and even asking members of the crowd to ‘Boo’ as the float and wedding passed by.

Well, I’m here to tell you that none of that happened, and, in fact, The Gay Float won the Rose Parade Award for "Color And Color Harmony"

Of course it did. During the 30 seconds that the float was onscreen, the two grooms atop the wedding cake waved, beamed, held hands, and generally seemed to be having a wonderful time.

And I’ll give props to parade host Al Roker, who announced: "A sincere shout-out to the newlyweds and the happy couples on the float."

Way to start a New Year.

Speaking of New Year, we had a mellow one. We stayed in yesterday; I made Ham and Potato Salad and Carlos made a Plum Pudding, er, Raisin Pudding, er, cake, er, something; it was very good, and quite the process, but I’m here to talk about Seven Psychopaths.

That was a movie we watched. It was some kind of comedy about a Hollywood screenwriter, a mob boss, a kidnapped dog, and, well, yes, seven psychopaths.

It starred Colin Farrell and my only thought about the movie was this — which I said so often Carlos almost banished me from the room:

Colin Farrell is the most gorgeous looking man I’ve ever seen.

Truly, he was is hot.

I don’t usually comment on the Tweet of the Week, but this one, from our own South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley fried my nerves.

Santa brings guns, real guns, to people, according to Nikki. And he brings guns if you’re good.

The Spirit of Christmas in the Haley household obviously smells like gunpowder, I’m guessing.

If you can find it, watch the episode of Graham Norton with Colin and Sharon Osborne and Jeremy from Top Gear. It is hysterical and Graham gets Colin to talk about his sex tape and a few other highlights from his past. And damn! he did look fine. After a few rough years of "too much" he is glowing again. HNY!

Still hoping to see 'Hustle' on Mon, but hope that my experience wonn't distracted by in-theatre dramatics like you witnessed, especially when the scrumptious Brad C is on screen. In my book he knocks spots of the Bale, even when the latter appears at his best. But there you are - just one person's opinion.

Re: Pope Frankie. He poses a danger of a different order from his predecessors - at least we all knew where they stood. Pope F seems to revel in presenting a more 'tolerant and understanding' face to some, yet underneath the cuddly, 'benevolent' exterior it's the same old iron-fisted, intolerant despotism.